TLA intervenes to preserve accused's right to counsel of choice

The right of an accused to have counsel of choice is fundamental to Canada's criminal justice system, says the Toronto Lawyers Association (TLA).

The TLA is intervening to oppose a Crown application to remove counsel of record from a murder trial, says the association's president Melanie Manchee.

"The Crown will argue that the counsel in question is not available for trial within the thirty-month time frame set out in the Jordan case and in order to accommodate the co-accused’s right to a trial within a reasonable time, the right of the accused to counsel of choice must be sacrificed," she says.

If the Crown application were to succeed, it would have a profound effect on the practice of criminal law in Toronto, Manchee says.